--- title: Loneliness Makes You More Likely to Have a Heart Attack description: Loneliness can affect your health and put you at greater risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease canonical: https://time.com/4299234/heart-attack-loneliness/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-19T22:30:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:32.825Z article:section: Health og:title: Being Lonely Means You're 29% More Likely to Have a Heart Attack og:description: Loneliness is bad for your health og:url: https://time.com/4299234/heart-attack-loneliness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8849e8c74e709692/69888fc82dce0154dc9e8bb6/woman-backlit-portrait.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4968 og:image:height: 2795 og:image:alt: woman backlit portrait og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Being Lonely Means You're 29% More Likely to Have a Heart Attack twitter:description: Loneliness is bad for your health twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8849e8c74e709692/69888fc82dce0154dc9e8bb6/woman-backlit-portrait.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Being Lonely Means You're 29% More Likely to Have a Heart Attack > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=19b837f8-0b26-4807-9a66-06252e455a17&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Study Says Marriage Is Good For Your Heart ... Literally [Watch (HLS stream): Study Says Marriage Is Good For Your Heart ... Literally](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UIMQThkY.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2015-10-29. A new study says being married increases your chances for a better recovery after heart surgery._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 19, 2016 10:30 PM UTC  Silhouette of young woman. Silhouette of young woman. Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 19, 2016 10:30 PM UTC Research is mounting that how you feel affects your heart—especially if you feel all alone. A new [study](http://heart.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/heartjnl-2015-308790) published in the journal _Heart_ found that lonely people had a much greater risk of heart attack and stroke than those who had strong social relationships. Led by Nicole Valtorta, a research fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom, a team dug through scientific literature on loneliness and analyzed 23 existing studies involving 181,000 healthy people. They found that loneliness, a negative feeling people get when they’re unhappy about their relationships, was linked to a 29% increased risk of coronary heart disease and a 32% greater risk of having a stroke. That makes loneliness as much of a risk factor for cardiovascular disease as anxiety and job strain. It has such profound effects on the body through three different pathways, Valtorta says. Loneliness affects a person’s behavioral and lifestyle factors. “Isolated or lonely people would be more likely not to be physically active, to smoke, to not go see their doctor, to be less likely to eat well and to have higher rates of obesity,” she says. The second is biological, since loneliness can affect people’s immune systems and might make them less likely to deal with stress. The third is psychological; loneliness is linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression. Valtorta is currently working on a study to help tease apart these different pathways in order to see how loneliness is causing the most harm. Thankfully, the opposite also appears to be true: that cultivating strong relationships leads to healthier hearts. Having friends, according to [one study](http://time.com/3748090/friends-social-health/?iid=sr-link7), protects the health about as much as exercising does. ## Transcript Talk about marriage being good for the heart, literally. A new study found marriage can ease your recovery after heart surgery. The study was published Wednesday in the journal JAMA surgery. It claims patients who were married did significantly better than those who were divorced Widowed or separated, but not better than those who had never been married. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania used data from a University of Michigan study of more than 1, 500 adults over the age of 50 who had undergone heart surgery. The researchers said those who were divorced, widowed or separated were 40 % more likely to die. Die after heart surgery or develop a new disability within two years after the surgery. The researchers looked at how well the patients could perform everyday activities like dressing eating and taking showers without help. Study co author Mark Newman said the reason for the link between marriage and better heart surgery recovery remains unknown, but it may help doctors identify who may need more support after surgery. We should note that for the patients who had never been married Had about the same chances of successful recovery than people who were married. Granted, the unmarried patients only accounted for 2 % of the study participants, while the married patients accounted for 65 %. Doctor Asheesh Scholl is the head of heart transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Shaw says the recent findings echo other studies that found married patients do better after surgery. Shaw says the recent findings echo other studies that found married patients do better after surgery. 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